With the final sale of the land our house used to stand on, it looks like we might be able to afford a decent sized mobile/manufactured home for a decent price. The problem is that when we search for likely places using Zillow, Redfin and the like we can find places in our price range, but the vast majority of them have a separate for the land itself. Is there a way to look for a new home that comes with its own land in the final price? I don’t want to buy a place, then find out later that I have to try to move the residence because the land is being leased to someone else.
Where are you looking? Rural areas (the non-trendy ones) seem to be much friendlier toward mobile/manufactured homes than urban areas.
Not too rural. My Beloved may have to travel by bus occasionally, and I don’t want to live too far away from medical facilities.
Some tips I found. I have no experience with what you want to do but maybe these will help your search:
- On real estate sites, try searching for “manufactured home with land” or “mobile home with land owned”
- Look for listings that specifically say “fee simple” ownership (this means you own both the structure and the land)
- Filter out results that mention “land lease,” “lot rent,” or “park fees”
- Look for “manufactured homes on permanent foundation”
- Search for “manufactured home on private property” rather than in mobile home parks
- Some sites let you filter for single-family homes and then narrow to manufactured types
ETA: From Google:
In real estate, “fee simple” means a type of ownership where the owner has complete and absolute rights to the property, including the right to use, sell, or transfer it indefinitely. This is the highest level of ownership, meaning the owner has no limitations on their rights, other than those imposed by law or regulations.
EETA: Have you considered a tiny home? They are getting popular these days. You can even buy them on Amazon (really). Be careful about plumbing and whatnot though. Not all are created equal.
Size matters!? Or it depends on how you use it?
Someone had to say it. 
We collect.
We are Fen.
I think tiny homes are usually a bit bigger than a mobile home. Not sure, doubtless there is some overlap.
Uh, no. Tiny houses are about 400 square feet or less, the last time I looked, and manufactured homes are quite a bit larger usually.
That is really small. You can easily expand the search to 1000 sqft (or whatever you want…don’t let terminology limit your search).
Some sites that you might try:
- ClaytonHomes.com (look for their “Move-in Ready” option with land)
- PreferredHomesMI.com
- PrestigeHomeCenters.com
- MaWilliamsHomes.com
- Trovit.com (they have a specific filter for “own land”)
- CoastalMobile.com (has “fee simple” filters in some regions)
- TheHomesDirect.com
Avoid:
- “Land lease” arrangements
- “Lot rent” or monthly fees beyond standard HOA fees
- “Mobile home park” or “manufactured home community” location
- “Chattel loan” as the only financing option
- Any reference to the home being movable or not permanently affixed
IANAL or Realtor. Just trying to help. Do your own research. This is a big purchase, get an attorney expert in this to make sure all is as you want.
Thank you for the great advice and those links!
Modern manufactured homes, and mobile homes in the older sense, aren’t the same thing at all. Manufactured homes come in all sorts of sizes, and many of them can’t be told from stick built once they’re up.
If you’re talking about actual mobile, as in readily movable, homes: standards for these may vary from state to state, I don’t know; but make sure you’re getting something that’s both up to your state’s current standards, and up to yours.
Nothing really to add here except I was just thinking about you and your family, wondering what was going on in your post-fire life. I wish you a successful search and settling-in!
Let’s narrow it down to manufactured homes with owned land. What do I input into Zillow or Redfin to get the desired results? What exactly do I check off, and what specifically do I add to get this?
…Would this happen? I would assume you would know that information even before looking at a place. You ask the seller what the situation is.
Looking on Zillow and Redfin it doesn’t appear that they have fields specifically for whether or not the land under the home for sale comes with the home. I think it might be too niche a circumstance for those sites OR sellers just don’t want to disclose it up front on these sites, they want you to ask them.
So, I’m not sure there’s going to be any specific terms or checkboxes on those two sites that will get you exactly what you want, with no chaff. 
Would this happen? Happens all the time-Land leases are never permanent.
Are there any sites that allow me to search for manufactured homes on owned (not leased or rented) land?
Just guessing here: but some of them might be selling as single-family residences; not classed specifically as manufactured homes.
Try searching for single-family homes within your price and house size category?
If you don’t want to move it, and you don’t want it on leased land, why a preference for manufactured instead of stick built?
Price, mostly. When you are in your late 60s/early 70s you don’t really need a home that will last for a hundred years, but you also don’t need one that is a money/work/time pit. Decent manufactured home seems to fit the bill, but I want the price to include the land it will sit on.
Craigslist has an option to search for manufactured homes. Go to Craigslist->Housing->Real Estate For Sale. That’ll bring up the search screen. On the options on the left side, open ‘housing’ and you should see an option for ‘manufactured’.
Finding manufactured homes is easy. Finding manufactured homes that come with land owned, not leased is not. Does Craigslist have that option?